


Three Plum Buns

by Okumen



Series: 101 Kisses [23]
Category: Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori | 鹿楓堂よついろ日和
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 08:18:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14492748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okumen/pseuds/Okumen
Summary: Paper cranes and sweets and a late afternoon.





	Three Plum Buns

The sound of somebody knocking their knuckled against wood brought Kimitaka out of his focused state, and he looked up to see who was disturbing him. Not that he minded company or conversation, but he had been so focused on the origami that he had not even noticed anyone approaching.

When he saw who it was, Tokitaka’s face froze awkwardly and he felt thrown off his rhythm and flustered. A natural reaction to seeing him at this point, because the man tended to bring some certain amount of trouble with him, each time he appeared. And all of them were generally thrown out of loop when he showed up, unannounced or otherwise. He was simply the sort of person that caused them to be on guard.

The look on Tsunozaki-san’s face was one of amusement, and maybe held a touch of surprise as well, though Tokitaka couldn’t be certain. You never knew what this man was thinking, which was one of severals reasons why Tokitaka found it awkward to deal with him.

Tokitaka had unconsciously pressed a hand to his heart when he startled, but he could feel its pace slow back down in his chest and he lowered his hand back to the paper held in the other. “Tsunozaki-san, good evening. What a surprise. We have already closed for the day.”

“That’s intentional,” Tsunozaki-san assured him. “I came to pay a social call~”

Tokitaka looked up at him. He gave him a half deadpan look, although he wasn’t certain how to deal with this situation on his own. “So even Tsunozaki-san pays social calls.”

The patisserie chuckled, the cheer on his face growing even more. “Don’t be so shocked, of course I do. I even brought you sweets so none of you would run me out of here right away.”

“I don’t recall ever doing that. Did that happen while I was out?” Although Tsunozaki said, in a sing-song voice, “Maybe~?” Tokitaka was sure that he was making things up. It wasn’t the first time that he made things up, but at least this time it was a little more obvious. He believed Sui locked the garden door when he left, yet somehow Tsunozaki-san had come around the house despite that. “How did you get in here, by the way?”

"I am ever-resourceful," the man chimed. He moved aside some of the paper cranes to make place for himself on the balcony, and he sat down on the floor boards. He put down the brown paper bag he had brought with him by his side. He didn’t properly answer Tokitaka’s question.

The part of the wall was slid open to the nearly empty house behind him. Besides Tokitaka, only Kinako was at home. The cat in question was sleeping under a table a little further into the room behind him.

Tsunozaki-san seemed to notice how quiet it was, and he twisted his body to look toward the inside of the house. “It’s just you?”

“Oh no, I have Kinako for company.”

Tsunozaki-san laughed. “That you do!” Tsunozaki-san picked up a drifting paper crane, which had over the wooden floor with a small gust of wind. “You’re making a lot of these. Are they for a special occasion?”

“Somebody I know is ill, so to share my well-wishes.” Put a prayer into a thousand cranes, and it should come true.. Or so the legend went. He fairly liked it, even if it might only be a story. The others had offered to help him, but he wanted to do it on his own.

“I see, I see. Would you like a plum bun?” Tsunozaki-san had put down the crane between two finished strings of them. Tokitaka blinked slowly. He looked down at the sheets of origami paper he still had left to fold. “I would like to finish this by tonight,..” he said uncertainty. Entertaining Tsunozaki-san with tea all on his own — because Kinako wasn’t much help in the matter — was something he wasn’t sure how to go about.

“Hmm.. Well, you just have to avoid getting your fingers sticky. Would you like some in that case?”

“How do you propose that—” He fell silent when Tsunozaki dug out a smooth bun from the paper bag, and held it out for Tokitaka, and he said “Aa~hn.” He sounded far too cheerful for such a confusing gesture. The cheeriness was all over his face and in his body language.

Slowly blinking at him for several long moments of surprise and confusion, Tokitaka shifted the sheet of paper between his fingers. Eventually, he leaned in to take a bite of the bun. Tsunozaki-san beamed at him for some strange reason, and Tokitaka imagined that if they were in a shoujo manga, flowers would have bloomed around Tsunozaki-san or he would have had one of those sparkly backgrounds behind him.

Confusion aside though, the plum bun tasted amazing. And apparently his opinion on the taste showed on his face, because Tsunozaki-san’s smile widened.

“Tsunozaki-san made this?”

“I did! You can tell?”

“A lucky guess.”

Tsunozaki-san laughed. Tokitaka leaned in to take the rest of the bun. Tsunozaki-san took out another and took a bite of it. Tokitaka resumed folding his cranes, and he felt Tsunozaki-san watch him.

“You seem to be good with your fingers,” the other man said after a while, when Tokitaka was chewing on another bite of bun. Tokitaka swallowed, and his tongue darted out to quickly lick his lips before he said anything. “I enjoy keeping my hands occupied.”

Tsunozaki-san hummed, and he popped the rest of the bun into his mouth. For a while, he continued watching mostly in silence and Tokitaka didn’t know why he stayed for so long, but when Tokitaka finally finished folding the last sheet of origami paper and started stringing the last ones together, he made one cheerful comment that gave Tokitaka pause. “It seems you might have made too many.”

“Huh?”

Tsunozaki-san picked up one of the loose cranes, and wiggled it in Tokitaka’s direction. “That one makes forty-two,” he said. “You’re on the last string now, aren’t you? I counted them to be sure but there are two too many.”

Tokitaka let his eyes wander the strings of cranes, quickly counting them, and after a while, he could conclude that Tsunozaki-san was right. “It was supposed to be a senbazuru set..” he mumbled. Tsunozaki-san wiggled the crane’s head in Tokitaka’s direction. “Sometimes they accidentally add another sheet or two.” It was in beighes and pinks, like ripples of water on the ocean, flowers and crescent moons floating on its surface.

“Yes... At least there are not too few of them, I should be thankful for that.” As he said so, he tied the last bead in place, to finish the twenty-fifth string of cranes. He picked up the other leftover crane, a deep blue base with dark and light flowers scattered across it.

“Mmm-mh, yes.” Tsunozaki-san turned the crane in his hand around, wiggled its face in his own direction. “Mind if I keep this one?”

Tokitaka blinked rapidly in confusion. Then he nodded more slowly. “It you want it, I don’t mind, though I can’t don’t understand why would want it.”

“That,” Tsunozaki-san let the tip of the paper bird’s beak peck once against Tokitaka’s lips. “it my little secret.”

 

Ah, really... It really was impossible to predict what he might do or to understand what he was thinking...

**Author's Note:**

> The described origami papers are from [here](https://onlineorigami.weebly.com/printable-origami-papers.html), papers six and seven.


End file.
